Dissolving opportunities
Oh, hi friends!
My friend Aransas told me there was a group of runners I should meet in my new neighborhood — and then, because she’s a woman of her word, she sent an email introducing me to one of the founders.
This woman wrote back and told me their group meets at 6 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday in Central Park, rain or shine, and they were doing a ladder speed workout tomorrow if I’d like to join?
I haven’t been up that early in months. I haven’t done speed work in even longer. But I also knew that if I didn’t show up the next morning, I probably never would.
Because that’s what happens when you wait too long to make a decision or you let worry or uncertainty creep into your mind. You dawdle until the opportunity is gone.
This can happen at work, with our creative projects, our other goals. I can name a dozen instances of ideas or experiences that simply dissolved after being left left for too long. It’s not a great feeling!
But taking action — following through — certainly is.
When opportunity presents itself, run for it.
“The big secret about bad weather is that, certain dangerous storm conditions aside, it’s really bad only if you decide it’s bad. You may know the experience of being caught unprepared in heavy rain, starting to hurry toward shelter, then finally surrendering to the reality that you’ll be getting a soaking — whereupon the soaking is suddenly fine, even fun. Much of the discomfort of rain or cold temperatures arises not from the sensations themselves, but from a kind of internal struggle to avoid feeling them.”
I enjoyed this piece by Oliver Burkeman about why you should brave the “bad” weather — a needed perspective as the seasons change, and a reminder to myself to invest in another down vest and to fluff up my sweaters.
Plus, “It’s really only bad if you decide it’s bad” is a phrase that could be attributed to many things, eh?
A Happy Cry for Your Wednesday
Eighty-year-old composer Paul Harvey is a former music teacher who was diagnosed with dementia in 2019. He recently improvised a song with four notes that the BBC Philharmonic turned into a full orchestral piece. And then — then! — Stephen Sondheim sent him a video congratulations. A beautiful story about the power of music. Watch his story here. Eight minutes well worth your time!!
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara